Altar 7

This altar of Mary was created by Ludwig Jupan between 1506 and 1508. It depicts nine self-contained themes from the life of the Virgin Mary, some of which are based on non-biblical legends. The scenes are not arranged chronologically; the sequence begins in the upper left-hand corner with the rejection of Joachim and his God-guided meeting with Anna, the mother of Mary. This is followed by Mary’s visit to the temple in the upper right-hand corner, then in the middle row from left to right the marriage of Mary and Joseph, the Annunciation and the Visitation of Mary, and the Birth of Christ, then in the lower row from left to right the Circumcision, the Adoration of the Magi, and the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. In the center of the upper row, Jupan has placed the Death of Mary surrounded by the Twelve. Above this, in the raised central section, is the Assumption of Mary.

Eight prophets are depicted in the foliage at the edge. These were created in Ferdinand Langenberg’s workshop around 1901.

The predella probably comes from a St. John altar in this church, but was made at around the same time as the depictions in Ludwig Jupan’s shrine. The scenes depicted are “John in the Cauldron of Oil” on the left, “John as Seer on Patmos” and “The Death of John at the Altar of the Church in Ephesus.”

The panels that originally belonged to this altar were removed in 1818 and replaced with wings from a Sebastian altar painted around 1525. On the inside, they depict the martyrdom of St. Sebastian around the year 250, with the consolation of prisoners in a dungeon, the shooting with arrows, and his survival thanks to the help of Irene, accusations against the emperors Maximian and Diocletian for their persecution of Christians, his death by beating, the sinking of his body in a sewer, and his burial. The depictions on the outside of the wings are also impressive. They show St. Anthony Abbas, St. Sebastian, Pope Cornelius, St. Hubert, St. Christopher, and St. Quirinus.